Several efforts have been done to use clipboards at outdoors or at environment comprising extreme atmospheric conditions so as to allow use the clipboards at inclement weather conditions comprising heavy wind, wet conditions, or extreme light conditions or dust or debris or a combination thereof. But now computers, portable electronic and communication devices have become a part of our everyday lives. The declining use of paper has led to an increased need for ready access to a computing device as a source of information. A constant internet connection has become commonplace, accompanied by the expectation of rapid communication and constant availability.
Portable electronic devices (PEDs), such as, tablets, iPads, PDAs, computers, MP3 players, music players, video players, smart phones, GPS receivers, telematics devices, cell phones, satellite phones, pagers, monitors, etc., are being very widely used, and are being deployed in severe hazardous environments including industrial environments, public places and outdoors allowing the PEDs to be exposed to direct sunlight, wind-blown debris, air-born dust, water, snow, moisture, heat and other effects of extreme weather conditions.
But the use of these PEDs while standing is awkward. While a tablet can be held in one hand and operated using the other, tablets commonly weigh one and one-half pounds or more. Over time such use becomes tiring. Additionally, operating these devices at extreme weather conditions is difficult as well as unsafe for the PEDs.
For example, In-N-Out Burger® takes orders outside with tablets to ensure their customer gets served quickly. They do not take orders outside when it is raining or snowing because they do not want to get their devices wet. Similar to In-N-Out Burger®, Dutch Bros Coffee® uses tablets to take orders outside in all elements. They tend to have issues when it rains though. Similar to “In-N-Out”, they take orders outside, yet only when there is no precipitation. Further in another example, the National Football League and many other sports organizations use tablets to track many things while outdoors.
Numerous innovations have been provided in prior art that are adapted to protective apparatus and weather shields for clipboards and electronic devices. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific purposes to which they address, however, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,642,385 to Pryor and U.S. Pat. No. 1,967,632 to Simonson disclose apparatuses for supporting and shielding writing boards or pads. The shield is provided with transparent panes and has sufficient space that the hand may be inserted through the apparatus when it is desired to write upon the pad while protecting the pad from rain.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,728 to Bratton teaches an all-weather clipboard assembly comprising a clipboard surrounded by a clear plastic housing. The assembly further allows the user to access the interior of the housing so that the writing materials can be inserted and removed from the clipboard. Further the assembly has provisions for illuminating the clipboard for use at night.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,088 to Spry describes a protective cover for a clip board which permits use of the clip board for writing during inclement weather. The cover is transparent and attaches to the side edges and rear edge of the clip board to form a box-like structure over the clip board leaving an opening at the front for access to the writing surface of the clip board. Further this protective cover is collapsible and portable yet can be quickly assembled and attached to a clip board in case of bad weather out in the field.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,333 to Schrader discloses a weatherproof clipboard assembly wherein a housing has a transparent lid and an interior cavity permits the lid to be hingedly mounted to the housing permitting selective securement of a clipboard within the housing, permitting access interiorly of the housing for writing upon a clipboard selectively secured to the housing floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,910 to Meth teaches an all-weather clipboard assembly having a five-sided protective cover configuration for protecting writing media held by the board's clip, and a compact and generally planar collapsed configuration for use during good weather and indoors, and also for storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,084,711 to Duff describes a foldable laptop computer shade, which is a four sided collapsing box, which when expanded and placed directly over the entire computer, effectively shields the display from outside light sources enough to provide comfortable viewing possible so as to reduce the amount of ambient light adversely affecting the view ability of portable laptop/notebook computers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,115,238 to Von Gutfeld discloses an apparatus includes a housing having plurality retractable flaps for housing an LCD display of an electronic device. The retractable flaps are for limited a viewing angle of the LCD when the flaps are moved from a first position to a second position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,646,866 to Kao teaches a protective case to store a tablet PC. The case has an access opening for inserting and taking out the tablet PC, and a display opening for exposing the touch display panel of the tablet PC.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,304,839 to Burns describes a laptop computer outdoor protector for protecting a laptop computer during outdoor operation with the monitor disposed vertically to reduce glare from sunlight or other high intensity ambient light and to protect the laptop computer from wind, rain, snow or other objects such as tennis balls or golf balls. The protector may also be folded and stored while not in use.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D514582 to Dulberger illustrates an ornamental design for a universal hood and kit for laptop computer LCD screen.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D530719 to Roubanis illustrates an ornamental design for an electronic equipment enclosure.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D552616 to Woolley et al. illustrates an ornamental design for a table-top box for touch screen and LCD keypad.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,374,143 to Wittke describes an all-weather clipboard cover comprising a transparent dome enclosing the clipboard with an opening, battery powered LED's illuminating the clipboard, a track around the sides and closure end of the cover providing slideably removable attachment to the clipboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,907,394 to Richardson et al. discloses a protective enclosure for a personal electronic device. The shell is substantially watertight, substantially rigid and substantially crush-resistant. The enclosure has a transparent protective membrane positioned over the touch screen of the electronic device when the electronic device is enclosed in the shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,657,248 to Rowzee et al. teaches a supporting apparatus for a thin electronic product comprising a main body having a chamber, a locating portion located on the external lateral surface of the chamber. The thin electronic product can be visibly fastened to the external lateral surface by the locating portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,792,232 to Richardson describes a chemically resistant protective cover for an electronic device that has an interactive control panel includes a protective shell. An aperture defined by the protective shell aligns with the interactive control panel. A chemically resistant protective membrane has a combination of sufficient thinness and a dielectric constant that together permit capacitive input on a front side of the protective membrane to be transmitted to the capacitance sensing interactive control panel.
U.S. Pat. Application No. 20020185395 to Lindamood discloses a collapsible electronic equipment enclosure to enclose portable or tabletop electronic equipment comprising opaque protective sheeting supported by flexible struts, a transparent window and a provision for hand entry to permit use of the contained equipment while it is protected from environmental hazards. The enclosure collapses to store in a narrow space.
U.S. Pat. Application No. 20160000210 to Robenalt teaches a wearable tablet sling for use with a tablet computer comprising internal support structure for support of a tablet computer. The combination of a tablet platform and stop-hinge type hinge allows a user to easily access a tablet in standing position without the encumbrance of straps.
It is apparent now that numerous innovations for providing a weather shield or protecting the clipboards or electronic devices from extreme weather conditions when they are used at outdoor have been developed in the prior art that are adequate for various purposes. Furthermore, even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific purposes to which they address, accordingly, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described. Thus a weather shield apparatus for communication device that can be mounted on to vehicle door for facilitating use of the communication device efficiently while protecting the communication device from extreme weather conditions is needed.